Let's face it: every student possesses tricks to lengthen tedious papers and satisfy annoying word counts. A few of my personal favorites: lengthening sentences under the guise of making them appear more "scholarly," expanding contractions, and using passive voice. Why use a short, succinct word when several convoluted, complicated words can be implemented, especially when the definitions of such words are known to very few, causing the writer to appear knowledgeable and educated? In fact, because many such traits exist commonly within "scholarly" writing, I am almost convinced that much of said writing style originated from such mechanisms. See what I mean? My last sentence is a perfect example, as is the majority of this "scholarly essay." Generally, this writing pattern is quite inefficient, both in terms of length and of readability.
However, students are partially justified in their efforts, even though such tactics add a great deal of unnecessary baggage to an essay. When Professors assign length mandates (necessary because this resembles real world assignments), most students will find the quickest, most efficient method to complete the task, because there are likely a plethora of other tasks jostling for priority. The consequence? Students are naturally inclined towards messy, inefficient writing. Teachers are actually cultivating bad writing habits.
However, lets be real: professors do need to ensure that students cover all necessary information in essays and papers. How can they achieve this without conventional limits? For one thing, word limits are much more efficient than page limits, and perhaps can be included along with a list of points that must necessarily be covered in the student's essay, at least for basic students.
I would expand further on this topic, but it's late and I have more work before I rest.
